pitch perfect gift for the boy from Pam ( )

After enjoying Leonard Baskin's wonderful A Book of Dragons, written with his young son Hosie, I immediately began looking around for other children's books he had worked on, coming up with this fabulous catalogue of unusual creatures. Taken from traditional folklore, works of original fantasy, and the author's own imagination, the twenty-one beings profiled here, from The Imp of the Perverse to the Jack-o-Lantern, are all a little creepy.

Here the reader will encounter The Wicked Witch of the West, from L. Frank Baum's classic children's novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; Ariel and Caliban from Shakespeare's The Tempest; and Oberon and Titania from his A Midsummer Night's Dream. Here too is the bridge troll from the Norwegian folktale, The Three Billy Goats Gruff; the elves from the Grimms' The Elves and the Shoemaker; and the diminutive villain of Rumpelstiltskin. The other creatures include Jack Frost, the bogeyman Bloody Bones, the Tooth Fairy, a gremlin, the Black Dog, the Little Gnome, the Witch of Dark Adventures, the Demon of Energy, Tinkerbell, the Sly Devil, the Witch of Secret Good Deeds, and the Guardian Angel. Finally, the giants that Jack killed - Cormoran, Blunderbore, Thunderbell, and Gargantua - also make an appearance.

Each creature profiled in Imps, Demons, Hobgoblins, Witches, Fairies & Elves is given a two-page spread, with text - ranging from simple sentence to complete fairy-tale - on one page, and painting on the other. Baskin's images are compelling, giving even those creatures more commonly held to be "cute" a sinister appearance. The palette is very dark here, and some of the illustrations disturbing, so I would say that this is one for those with a taste for the darker side of the supernatural. Leonard Baskin fans, naturally, will be delighted. ( )